Week 2: The Bog Jump

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Molly Pults

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Molly Pults

<i>"Hello" in your host country's language:</i> Hello :) <i>Home Institution (your U.S. University/College):</i> College of Saint Benedict <i>Expected graduation year:</i> 2024 <i>Destination city & country:</i> Dublin, Ireland <i>Program provider:</i> FIE: Foundation for International Education <i>Major/minor:</i> Exercise and Health Science / Pre-PT <i>Demographics:</i> Caucasian/White <i>Future career aspirations:</i> After finishing my bachelor's at the College of Saint Benedict, I intend to earn my doctorate in physical therapy at another school (3 years). I'm not entirely sure which one yet, but hopefully one in Minnesota. Then I want to be a practicing physical therapist on a sports team, but if that is not possible, I'm perfectly happy working in a clinic! <i>Top 3 goals for your time abroad:</i> 1. Walk and explore the city of Dublin as well as visiting Cork and Galway. 2. Go to a professional soccer game or as most Europeans call it: a football game. 3. Finally, try their coffee and a wide variety of food.

Alrighty, week 2. This week, my program through FIE arranged for us to go to Causey Farm. Which you may think it’s just a farm, nothing special to see here. BUT! This farm specifically focuses on Irish culture through various activities. We began the day making classic Irish soda bread, starting from scratch and then waiting an hour or 2 while it baked. I have never had soda bread before, but I really loved it. I want to definitely get more while I’m here and even when I’m back in America I want to try making it! It was a very simple recipe, but it tasted delicious. After bread making, they taught us very simple Irish dancing. Which was difficult at first, but then I think everyone started to get it after a while. It was a dance with multiple groups of 4 constantly switching lines and places. Our instructor told us it was a lively wedding dance, but not used as much these days.

Then, we went bog jumping! The Irish have a ton of bogs, but not all of them are stable to jump in. This farm was an exception. The bog, despite looking just like mud, is actually dead vegetation and it is very healthy for the environment. It was a very cool texture but had a high suction tendency. So, when we first being instructed on jumping in, we were told to never do a pencil dive or a flip. The best way to jump was on your butt with your legs out in front of you. If you jumped straight down, then you would be stuck for a good while and not entirely sure they could get you out. Luckily the day I went everyone was safe and no one get stuck. I, along with others even when doing the proper jump had to work sometimes to get our legs out, because they would get stuck really easily. That being said, it was a really fun experience! There was about 15 of us who jumped in, and we tried to convince a lot of people to jump in because it was fun. Cleaning the bog off us was not as fun though and took a while. Eventually, we realized we just had to wait until we got home to finally take a shower. Overall, the farm was a really good experience, with traditional food, dance, and landscape and I feel like I learned a lot more about Irish culture.